Event Details

The first hour of this event will feature a talk by Dr. Craig Borowiak on how urban agriculture fits within larger solidarity economies and post-capitalist politics in the U.S. It will include findings from an initiative to create a comprehensive inventory of community gardens in Philadelphia and to map them against racial and class variables as well as land-ownership patterns.

Following the talk, from 1:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m., the Food Systems Research Network will host their kick-off event. Lunch will be provided at 1:00 p.m. for Food Systems Research Network participants.

Craig Borowiak (PhD, Duke University) is an associate professor of Political Science at Haverford College. His research and teaching revolve around political economic thought, globalization, democratic theory, global civil society, and post-capitalist politics. He is currently researching solidarity economies and the spread of solidarity economy movements worldwide. This includes extensive qualitative, quantitative and spatial research in Philadelphia, where he is based. He has developed a spatial database of over 800 solidarity economy entities in the city, including over 470 community gardens, which he has been mapping against demographic and land ownership data. He is also the creator of a web-based national mapping platform for the solidarity economy (www.solidarityeconomy.us) which maps over 25,000 entities across the US.

His earlier research focused on democratic accountability, farmers’ rights, and citizens tribunals, among other topics. He is the author of Accountability and Democracy: the Pitfalls and Promise of Popular Control (Oxford University Press, 2011), and co-editor of Exploring Cooperatives: Economic Democracy and Community Development in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Ext, 2016). He has published several articles in major political science journals, including Polity, the Journal of Politics, Political Theory, New Political Science, and Politics and Society, among others.